Elmgreen & Dragset: Trilogy

Andreas F. Beitin & Peter Weibel Thames & Hudson

Artistic duo, Elmgreen & Dragset, are best-known for Prada Marfa, a permanently installed sculpture in Valentine, Texas, which is a perfect replica of a typical Prada emporium. Whilst Prada Marfa remains permanently closed, this book opens up and analyses the pair’s three most famous works in what is a detailed and visually captivating collection.

Organised into three sections that correspond to three exhibitions – The Welfare Show, The Collectors, and Celebrity – The One & The Many, this text explores the fundamental themes behind much of the duo’s work and demonstrates how the artists’ sculptures and installations reconfigure the familiar with characteristic wit and subversive humour.

Readers will be rewarded by spending some time with the art historical discussion, in particular Sarah Thornton’s A Scene from the Marriage of Elmgreen & Dragset, which in its humour pays homage to the duo’s desire to make art for an audience beyond the art world. Well timed for their installation on the Fourth Plinth in 2012/13.